Many readers may recall not only one of the UK's longest-running advertising slogans ‘Go to work on an egg’, but also the regular experience of being served this nutritionally versatile, oval-packaged protein by parents swayed by the campaign's promise of a solid start to a productive day.
First aired in 1965 on the UK terrestrial television (there was no other kind) and featuring the comedy icon Tony Hancock and character actress Patricia Hayes, the black and white commercial ran in several forms until finally taken off the airwaves, ironically for ‘failing to promote a balanced diet’.
For those who remember that catchphrase and period, eggs embodied health, heartiness and in its humorous approach, happiness. Similarly, the egg has long had numerous universal connotations and symbolic significance, variously representing creation, nascent life and rebirth. For ancient Egyptians, the cosmos originated from a primordial egg; according to the Hindu Upanishads, Brahmanda, or the cosmic egg, hatches the universe and thereafter the evolution of humanity; the Orphic tradition on the birth of the ancient Greek gods sees Dionysus represented holding an egg; the Romans left eggs as burial offerings; in pre-Incan mythology, the superlative divinity was represented by ovoid gold plates within the celestial cosmos.
In the UK, and elsewhere, the Christian feast commemorating the resurrection of Jesus is celebrated, by both religious and non-religious people, often accompanied by the decoration or hunt for eggs, most popularly in the form of chocolate. For some, the breaking of the egg at Easter (confectionery or otherwise) is representational of the resurrection and eschatological salvation, new birth and hope; the cracked egg is suggestive of the renaissance of Jesus and the empty tomb.
For others, the gift of a chocolate egg represents care and love, and a token of affection to be enjoyed. All the Easter egg traditions are rooted in the history and heritage of Christianity and the passion of Jesus. The passion, as described in the four canonical or evangelist gospels (or Christian message of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), is the narrative account of the last week of Jesus's life including his agony and suffering on the cross.
For healthcare professionals, regardless of religious belief or faith, the etymology of word ‘passion’ forms a core tenet of caring. The word itself is derived from the late Latin pati/passio and means to suffer, endure or bear. The word correspondingly forms the root for the English noun ‘compassion’, derived from the Latin cum (meaning ‘with’) and passion (meaning ‘to suffer with [the patient]’). The word ‘patient’ itself is derived from Latin (pati) and means ‘one who suffers’. The word ‘patient’ itself is derived from Latin (pati) and means ‘one who suffers’. This also connects to the Greek concept of pathos, the shared suffering, sorrow or emotion we experience, as reflected in the word συμπάθεια (sumpatheia), or ‘sympathy,’ which means feeling with or alongside another.
Compassion is recognised not only as central to many of the world's religious customs, but as a concept congruent with secular professional practices (Strauss et al, 2016). For healthcare practitioners, compassion is a crucial professional requirement and core value, enshrined in items such as the NHS constitution (NHS, 2023), the Nursing and Midwifery Council's code of conduct (2018) and frameworks for the provision of primary healthcare (World Health Organization, 2025).
Increasingly, compassion is being recognised and emphasised as important for good quality care and positive patient outcomes (Sinclair et al, 2016; Malenfant et al, 2022). And yet, though it is possible to delineate the dictionary definition, and have regard for the general construct, its application to healthcare has been ambiguous (Taylor et al, 2017), and how healthcare professionals comprehend and position compassion in practical context is less well understood (Marshman et al, 2024).
The lack of suitably standardised training for practitioners, in culturally competent care and compassionate communication, can similarly negatively impact the delivery of care and the wellbeing of practitioners (Watts et al, 2023). Compassion fatigue, or the distress and diminished ability to empathise, associated with the prolonged demands of palliative caring, is being increasingly recognised, as is the need to better screen, reduce, intervene and provide support around such stressors (Cross, 2018; Baqeas et al, 2021; Saribudak, 2023).
Creating supportive peer and mentor networks, and constructive continuous professional development, as well as fostering resilience and implementing self-care practices, are vital coping strategies for the individual practitioners and the sustainability of high quality services (Alruwaili et al, 2024; Sinnathamby et al, 2024). Comfort eating, as you might expect, is not to be encouraged but a more self-compassionate approach could easily be taken to mean not necessarily feeling guilty for eating that extra (egg-stra?) Crème Egg or two for being such a good egg, or at least that is how I have been justifying my paschal dietary choices.